Much noise has been made by certain proponents of the earlier GR over
the fact that there are three very similar options on the ballot. They
have suggested that this means the sponsors of these ballot options
don't have their act together, and are incapable of agreeing on
anything.
It is precisely because we all agree on the importance of releasing
sarge soon that we have proposed so many paths to reaching this goal.
This is an effort to build consensus, not a lack of consensus on our
part. Debian is a large community, and it's not easy to know what the
outcome of such a vote will be before it happens. The range of ballot
options has been provided partly in the hope that at least *one* among
these options will receive the necessary support from developers and
will put us back on the road to releasing sarge.
This means that, if your objective in voting on this GR is also to undo
the damage that has been done to our release process, you should
consider voting *multiple* options above "Further Discussion", not just
one.
If you believe the changes should be reverted completely, please
consider: if there is not support for reverting the changes at this
time, do you really want the Social Contract to stay as it is now, with
the release schedule continuing to slip, while we continue to "discuss
further"?
If you believe that the previous GR does represent a direction that
Debian wants to be heading in, but you also believe that releasing sarge
now with the same warts we've always had is better than waiting until
next year to release a blemishless distribution, please consider:
doesn't this GR itself show us that it's possible to change our minds
about decisions, and doesn't that mean reverting the changes for now
will still let us head down that road later?
If you believe Debian needs to handle transitions better, please
consider: isn't it important to handle *this* transition now, even if we
can't yet agree on how to handle them in the future?
I have no intention of telling people which option should be their
preferred option; indeed, I myself question whether September is far
enough away to let us release before then, because we've lost a lot of
momentum over the last month and a half while this has been hanging over
our heads. But it is precisely because of the momentum being lost that
I think it's hard for us to do *worse* than the status quo, which is why
I still plan to vote choice 1 above the default option -- along with
choices 2, 3, 4, and 5. If you agree with me that the release of sarge
is already long overdue, I encourage you to do likewise.
And if you have already voted, I would also remind you that the Debian
voting system does allow you to change your vote any time up until the
close of the polling period.
Thanks,
--
Steve Langasek
postmodern programmer